1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a device for positioning a tracheostomy tube and, more particularly, to a device for positioning the tracheostomy tube that can effectively protect a trachea of a patient.
2. Description of Related Art
With the rapid progress of medical skill, supplying enough exygen to the patients with respiratory failure is possible by utilizing a respirator (breather) or portable oxygen providing equipment. Before using the equipment, maintaining an effective and safe respiratory passage for patients is very important. Thus, it is necessary to perform tracheotomy surgery and implant the tracheostomy tube for patients who need to use auxiliary breathing equipment to support their breathing for a long period. However, the method disclosed in the prior art about mounting the tracheostomy tube into the trachea may cause trachea mucous injury, bleeding of the trachea or a fatal innominate artery injury, because of an inexperienced operator or a smaller incision. On the contrary, a wider incision for operation safety may result in subcutaneous emphysema and poor tracheostomy healing.
In the present market, there is a tracheostomy tube assembly, named the Blue-Rhino, utilizing a dilator passing through the skin along with the wire to create a subcutaneous passage and implanting the tracheostomy tube. However, the Blue-Rhino tube assembly is difficult to operate on patients with nodular goiter or tracheal deviation. Besides, the cost of the Blue-Rhino tube assembly is not less than conventional tracheostomy surgery, so it is still unable to replace tracheostomy surgery with a small incision. Therefore, the need to improve the structure of the tracheostomy tube and simplify the surgery procedure in order to prevent possible complications after surgery still exists.
Referring to FIG. 7, the conventional tracheostomy tube typically comprises a tracheostomy tube body 50 and a balloon 60. The tracheostomy tube body 50 includes a first end 51 and a second end 52. The balloon 60 is mounted on the outside surface of the first end 51. However, the balloon 60 of the conventional tracheostomy tube is easily broken when mounting, requiring implantation again. Besides, when implanting the first end 51 of the conventional tracheostomy tube, it is very easy to injure the trachea 71 of the patient 70. Thus, the need for improvement still exists.